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9* ''VideoGame/AceCombat'':
10** Your characters always start as unknowns, but quickly become the reason for much OhCrap from the enemies.
11** [[spoiler:Captain Matias Torres in ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'']], at least from the player's perspective. Suffice to say more than one ''Ace Combat'' fan double-taked when they learned that [[spoiler:the originally unmentioned captain of the battleship ''Tanager'' (and ''de facto'' commander of the Aegir fleet) in ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'' has not only gone on to command the most powerful naval weapon in the series, but has since taken on a GeneralRipper mentality along the way. Just look at his Plan to Save Ten Million Lives (it's literally called that) by "sacrificing one million" in turn (i.e. ending the Lighthouse War through a nuclear strike on Oured).]] Even Project Aces described him as the most evil character in the franchise (and he's not even [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Belkan]]!).
12* ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'':
13** One of the options you can start with is as a "Recruit", in which you are, well, a raw recruit with no field experience (and [[DifficultyLevels no starting skill points]]): in other words, a "nobody" who will make for a perfect fall guy if anything goes wrong. In one of the possible endings, you [[WeCanRuleTogether agree to work for]] the BigBad [[ICanRuleAlone but then betray him]], having made enough friends in both high and low places to run your own [[TheConspiracy Conspiracy]] and manipulate world events from the shadows.
14** There's also Steven Heck, the CrazyIsCool ConspiracyTheorist and alleged CIA agent who's implied to just be a regular guy who decided out of sheer insanity to be the best Conspiracy Theorist in the world.
15* ''VideoGame/{{AmnesiaTheBunker}}'': Augustin Lambert started as a heroic French soldier and loyal friend to Henri Clément in World War 1. After being trapped for a day in a crater during his patrol, Henri went to rescue him out of the crater and carried him off to their bunker, only to be attacked by German fighters, injuring Henri and killing Lambert. However, as it turns out, [[spoiler:Lambert never died from that explosion and was able to carry an unconscious Henri back to their bunker. Whatever water Henri unknowingly had fed to Augustin was some kind of mutagenic substance that gave him strength and healing. Later, Lambert slowly becomes a [[HumanoidAbomination ghoulish humanoid beast]], losing all of his humanity and recognition, and murders all of his bunkmates except for Clément who is still in a coma. leaving him as the primary antagonist of the whole game that the player must overcome.]]
16* ''VideoGame/{{Armello}}'': Sylas used to be a humble fisherman, albeit one with a fiery temper. Then he decided to poach a legendary fish off the King's hunting grounds and share it with his fellows. The King responded by having everyone else in the village slaughtered while Sylas was chained up and ForcedToWatch, then LeftForDead. While he hung there, a dark force whispered to him, offering to make a deal... Now he's known as the Fisher of Souls, and is the only hero explictedly ''not'' angling for the throne. All he cares about is revenge...
17* Several player characters from the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' series can count. At the start of each games, the player character is usually rather young (such as [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Connor]] or [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedUnity Arno]]) or in a relatively unimportant position ([[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag Edward]] was just a sailor/privateer) but inevitably each one proves to be exceptionally important both to the [[AncientConspiracy secret war between the Assassins and Templars]] and to the [[BeenThereShapedHistory historical setting in which they live]]. Special mention goes to Connor, who first appears in the game as a kid and is assaulted by the game's resident Templars, and declares that one day he'll find and kill all of them; over the next eight years, he does exactly that as well as playing pivotal roles in [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Battle of the Chesapeake, among other events]] which completely destroy the Templars' plans for the fledgling United States.
18** A character in Revelations actually lampshades this.
19--->"For centuries my people have been slandered and insulted, labeled witches and warlocks. Well, so be it. We will not run from these lies any more, but embrace them. Encourage these rumors, for it is better to be infamous than ignored."
20* [[spoiler:Edna Strickland]] in ''VideoGame/BackToTheFutureTheGame''. [[spoiler:She goes from minor annoyance to the leader of a [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Big Brother dystopia]]]].
21** In another AlternateTimeline [[spoiler: she accidentally burns down Hill Valley only a few years after it was officially established, wiping it off the map, [[RetGone and from history.]]]]
22* Throughout the ''Franchise/BaldursGate'' series, the PlayerCharacter goes from being just some kid [[spoiler: with a tiny fragment of the God of Murder in them]] to a being of incredible power. The bad guys in the third game don't send assassins after you -- they send an ''army''. You can also [[spoiler: become a God, if you choose]].
23** Sarevok, and most of the rest of the [[spoiler: Bhaalspawn]] that become major forces. Sure, they [[spoiler: have a fragment of the God of Murder in them]], but ''lots'' of people had that, and most of them didn't amount to much of anything. Sarevok, for example, goes from an orphan [[spoiler: with a tiny fragment of the God of Murder in him]] to ''extremely'' deadly warrior and a good enough manipulator that he actually ''is'' elected Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate.
24* Giacomo from ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos'' goes from being a ShadowArchetype of Sagi who ends up thrown out of TheEmpire for his repeated failures to a cruel combination of TheDragon and ThatOneBoss in the sequel.
25** [[spoiler:'''Geldoblame'''. He began as the polite, rather subdued, but loyal aide of Verus in Origins, then Verus' betrayal causes him to GoMadFromTheRevelation. The power vacuum in Alfard that was left behind as a result of the events in Tarazed led to Geldoblame being the only person left who had any position remotely close to the imperial electoral candidates (since Milly's identity as Baelheit's daughter was never made public), and so he was approached by the council. The result? Emperor Geldoblame, who would go on to force the creation of two {{Humanoid Abomination}}s: Kalas and Fee, both benevolent, until Fee was killed and Kalas swore revenge against the other FromNobodyToNightmare villain, Giacomo, who ''also'' serves Geldoblame. Said person would then plunge the entire world into chaos by meddling once more with the remains of Malpercio--up to and including the ''resurrection'' of Malpercio as a corrupted EldritchAbomination, which triggers ''demons from another dimension'' invading and attacking everything in sight. Oh, and he turns into a truly [[{{Squick}} disgusting]] OneWingedAngel before dying, only to somehow return later as an EldritchAbomination whose mere ''presence'' causes the entire world to fill with creepy face masks.]] Holy '''SHIT'''.
26** [[spoiler:Savyna.]] Initially a harmless girl who followed her father around, doing nothing but playing with her ball and writing random letters to anyone who would read them, watching [[spoiler:her father being murdered right in front of her]] caused her to enroll into the Alfard military in order to gain the power to kill [[spoiler:Sagi, her father's killer]], eventually rising through the ranks and becoming the [[TheAce powerful]] and [[TheDreaded feared]] '''"[[RedBaron Lady Death]]"'''.
27* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' Scarecrow had a memorable MindScrew of a boss battle, but at the end of the day was just another asylum inmate and side villain. [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight Three games later]], Scarecrow makes a comeback as the BigBad, holding all of Gotham hostage with a mix of a heavily-armed militia and extremely potent fear gas, and in the end [[spoiler: is the one Batman villain to finally publicly unmask Batman.]]
28* "[[ComicBook/TheJoker John Doe]]" of ''VideoGame/BatmanTheTelltaleSeries'' starts out as a mostly harmless, if capable fighter when necessary, inmate of Arkham Asylum who despite being sociopathic with serious issues is largely a nice guy who genuinely is Bruce's friend. Then he gets involved with The Pact and Batman which [[StartOfDarkness pushes him down the road to villainy]]. Your choices in how you trust and treat him will turn him into either ''The'' Joker we all know and love and Batman's greatest villain, or a ''monumentally'' effed-up BigBadFriend "vigilante" who needs to be taken down. [[spoiler: [[TragicVillain He doesn't get a good ending either way]], but the PostCreditsScene of a "Vigilante Joker" playthrough has Bruce visiting John in Arkham, implying there's at least still hope for him]].
29* Most of the villains in the original ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' start from humble beginnings. Andrew Ryan is a Russian immigrant [[AllThereInTheManual who fled the Bolshevik Revolution and watched his father be killed by the Red Army]]. Fontaine used to be a two-bit conman and criminal who moved to Rapture in the hope of making money from the most elaborate long con imaginable, and promptly became a leading figure in the creation of plasmids and in the civil war that destroyed the entire city. Dr. Tenenbaum, although a reformed villain, started out as a prisoner in a concentration camp, then rose to prominence after developing the Little Sisters to gather ADAM.
30* Daisy Fitzroy of ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'' was just a lowly, but highly intelligent scullery maid. Then [[spoiler:she witnessed, and [[{{Frameup}} was framed]] for the murder of Lady Comstock.]] Descending into the depths of Columbia's slums, she founded the Vox Populi, and [[spoiler:through several degrading versions of reality]], went from a well meaning revolutionary to a terrorist no better than Comstock.
31** Comstock himself turns out to be one of these: [[spoiler: he's actually parallel-universe version of Booker [=DeWitt=], the game's protagonist, this version starting out a traumatized corporal in the aftermath of Wounded Knee; after having himself baptised into a fundamentalist Christian sect in an attempt to justify what he'd done during the battle, he started preaching, acquiring followers outside the sect - enough to influence the United States government to fund the construction of Columbia. Eventually, through the firepower of Columbia and the Lutece's machinery, he levelled up into an apocalyptic prophet that endangered not only "The Sodom Below," but the rest of the Multiverse as well.]]
32** Elizabeth/[[spoiler:Anna [=DeWitt=]]] is another example, particularly in the [[spoiler: bad future sequence, where she takes over Columbia and uses it to destroy god only knows how many versions of human civilization]]. She started out as a harmless baby [[spoiler: who just so happened to lose her small finger in a dimensional rift and became a being with godlike powers]]. In the ''Burial At Sea'' DLC [[spoiler: this extends to being the instrumental cause of the Rapture civil war]].
33* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' series:
34** The entire cast of playable characters (with the exception of [[TouchedByVorlons the Sirens]]) are often normal individuals that gain abilities thanks to technology or generally just badassery, and end up becoming the very nightmare of any Bandit group. There's nothing particularly powerful about Mordecai, Axton, Athena, Brick, Gaige, Zane, Salvador, Roland, Nisha, or Moze. Technically this even counts for [=FL4K=] (a library robot) and even moreso for Claptrap (who becomes playable in ''TPS''). None of them have magical powers, none of them gain some sort of magic, and none of them have unusual superhuman physique by default. Despite this, every one of them is, by the words of Dr. Nakayama, a "Walking Apocalypse" by pure skill and effort, slowly building up their strength or gaining technological augments that put them on par with the Sirens.
35** ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' and ''Videogame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' reveal that Handsome Jack was formerly a low-level code monkey who happened to have [[spoiler:a [[TouchedByVorlons Siren]] as a daughter]]. While he was never truly heroic, the events of Elpis (particularly the betrayal by [[spoiler:the Meriff]] first and [[spoiler:Moxxi, Roland and Lilith]] later) slowly but surely drove him insane and by the end of it all he became the narcissistic megalomaniac of the second game.
36** Krieg is this to any Hyperion employee. A normal schmoe that was heavily experimented on that broke loose. Thanks to their bizarre experiments, Krieg has practically magical biology that can completely mutate him into a walking abomination. Woe be the Hyperion employees that cross paths with Krieg.
37* ''VideoGame/BugFables'': The Wasp King started his life as a scared child trying to survive [[spoiler:in the Dead Lands]], then he became a trash-collecting janitor nobody respected in the Wasp Kingdom. By the present, he single-handedly takes control of the entire kingdom and leads an army that terrorizes the other kingdoms of Bugaria, [[spoiler:thanks to having found a crown that both amplifies his fire magic and allows him to mind control yellowjacket wasps]].
38* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow'': Soma Cruz starts as a simple ForeignExchangeStudent living a relatively normal life in Japan. [[spoiler:[[MultipleEndings Make the wrong choices]], and one (allegedly) [[TargetedToHurtTheHero dead girlfriend]] and subsequent FreakOut later, he'll end ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow'' as the literal opposite to God and planning to commit genocide against all of humanity.]]
39* In ''VideoGame/CaveStory'', the Doctor was, well, a doctor before getting his hands on the [[ArtifactOfDoom Demon crown]] and proceeding to enslave cute bunny creatures and turn them into his evil army.
40* Happens three times in ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos''. The first is [[spoiler: John [=DeFoe=] by the way of being beaten to death with an enchanted idol]], then in the prestory [[spoiler: Cabadath becoming the Prince]], then [[spoiler: Theo Dacabe becoming the New Prince.]]
41* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'':
42** Lord Nemesis started out as a toymaker around the time of the Civil War. Now? He's a MadScientist master of SteamPunk, TheChessmaster above all others in the game's universe, and was Emperor of the United States for a brief time.
43** Marcus Cole was exposed to mustard gas during WWI, and after the war went globe-hopping with his now-mercenary platoon buddies, including his best friend Stephen Richter looking for a way to save his life. They eventually find the Well of the Furies, and drink from the Fountain of Zeus. Not only does this fix Marcus, but these two nobodies, these barely-notable privates in a war fought by millions, are now the first [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Incarnates of the gods themselves]] in generations, going by the respective names [[CaptainGeographic Statesman]] and [[SpidersAreScary Lord Recluse]]
44** Darrin Wade fits here, what with his [[spoiler: killing Statesman's daughter and then Statesman himself.]] Oh, and he also plans to [[spoiler: summon Cthulhu {{Expy}} Rularuu into this dimension and [[AGodAmI merge himself with it.]] ]] Not bad for a rejected mage.
45* ''VideoGame/CryptOfTheNecrodancer'': Aria's story reveals [[spoiler:the Necrodancer was once a struggling bard named Octavian who stumbled across the [[ArtifactOfDoom Golden Lute]]. After using its power for too long, the lute corrupted him and turned him into the Necrodancer.]]
46* In ''VideoGame/CultistSimulator'', you start as an unnoteworthy character like a doctor, a detective or a person doing a menial job, but after you get to know about the Mansus and its functioning, you become the leader of a powerful cult for which murder, robbery, madness and EldritchAbomination summoning are commonplace occurrences. And if you manage to win the game, you become an immortal Long waiting to fully ascend to the Mansus.
47* The titular character of ''VideoGame/CultOfTheLamb''. At the game's start, he's just a random follower being offered up as a sacrifice to his dark god. By game's end, that little follower [[spoiler:has killed all 4 uber powerful bishops of the old religion, and can very well ascended to ''Godhood'' if they refuse to surrender the crown.]]
48* In ''VideoGame/DarkChronicle'', [[spoiler:Sirus was a peaceful, shy Moon Person ([[FunnyAnimal anthropomorphic rabbits]]) who liked flowers, and, after sneaking into the Palace to admire the gardens, was invited by Queen Alexandra to become their keeper]]. When war broke out over the three [[CosmicKeystone Atlamillia Stones]], devastating the country and [[spoiler:killing Alexandra]], he obtained the Sun Atlamillia and swore eternal vengeance upon mankind. Ten thousand years later, the [[BigBad Dark Emperor Griffon]] has all but destroyed the world by manipulating the timestream, and sending out his armies to devastate the few resistance forces that he hasn't erased from existence.
49* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'':
50** The Furtive Pygmy was a nobody compared to other Lords. While the other Lords were mighty and awesome godlike beings, the Pygmy was just that: a pygmy. He is even described by the opening narration as being "so easily forgotten". Ultimately, the Pygmy turned out to be more cunning and patient than the other Lords, having come up with a scheme that would ensure that the Pygmy's descendants would one day inherit the world. [[spoiler:It's also possible that he became Manus, the terrifyingly powerful lord of the Abyss.]]
51** The Old Iron King in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' was once a very minor and unimportant nobleman who ruled over some worthless pile of dirt, up until he ran into a Iron Sceptre that allowed him to mine rich mineral deposits. He became DrunkWithPower and would relentlessly mine his own homeland in search of riches until he fell into a pool of lava and emerged as a fearsome demon.
52** Slave Knight Gael in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'' might be the biggest example in the series. As his title indicates, he is exactly that: an Undead slave thrown into hopeless battles as reusable cannon fodder for the enemy to kill over and over again, tiring them out and wasting their resources so they would be easier to defeat. [[spoiler:But then he manage to devour the Pygmy Lords' fragments and become the embodiment of the Dark Soul and one of the most powerful beings in the setting. For bonus points, he serves as the final boss of ''The Ringed City'' DLC expansion, and by extension, the entire series as whole]].
53* In the beginning of ''VideoGame/DawnOfTheDragons'', the protagonist starts out as a simple farmhand picking turnips when a small army of the dragons' beastmen attack his/her hometown. By the end of the day, he/she has killed scores of beastmen, bonded with a baby dragon, and saved the town by pushing an ogre off a roof. The [[RedBaron dragon-rider]] becomes a hero to the people and an object of fear and hatred to the dragons.
54* Everyone with a COMP in ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'', provided they survive making a demon contract. Special mention goes to the MC who ends up facing off against several demon overlords bent on winning a battle royale to [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership become the ultimate ruler of all demons]] and which [[spoiler: he himself can win, doing so to become the next Demon King or Messiah.]] He even fights and defeats [[spoiler:Lucifer]] as a {{Superboss}}. In ''[[UpdatedRerelease Overclocked]]'', one of the [[PlayableEpilogue 8th Days]] ([[spoiler:Demon King Route]]) has you fight [[spoiler:Metatron]] as the FinalBoss, with the ending making it clear that the next enemy is [[spoiler:[[{{God}} the Big Man Himself!]]]]
55* ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2'': The protagonist and his friends start off as normal high school students taking their entrance exams and end up becoming humanity's last line of defense against an alien invasion, fighting off both demons and StarfishAliens. This culminates in the protagonist and his team facing off with [[spoiler:[[RealityWarper Polaris,]] the Administrator with jurisdiction over reality,]] and can end up [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu killing it off in two endings!]] And then [[UpdatedRerelease Record Breaker]] [[SerialEscalation ups the ante by having you fight]] [[spoiler:Canopus, the Will of the Universe itself]], the entity responsible for the existence of the original game's FinalBoss. What really sets this up is that the protagonist has the option to [[spoiler:become the next Administrator himself in one of the Triangulum endings.]]
56* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'': The protagonist starts out as some random marine contracted to protect a research facility in Phobos. One portal screwup and [[DemonicInvaders opening of Hell]] later, he goes on to singlehandedly save the base, prevent humanity's extinction, and ''completely wreck {{Hell}} itself''. As revealed in ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' and ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'', he then goes on to become a walking boogieman to ''all'' of demonkind.
57* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', two of the available origins really are nobodies -- you can't get more 'nobody' than an elf living in an [[FantasticGhetto elf ghetto]] or a Casteless dwarf. You then go on to command the armies of an entire country, whose combined power is more or less equal to [[OneManArmy your own]]. You can even become [[spoiler: the first person ever to slay an Archdemon without dying, though you need some "outside help" for that one. And if you manage to survive the events of the first game, then you become the Warden-Commander of the Grey Wardens, building the Order from scratch.]]
58** Loghain is a better example; he wasn't even a noble before the Orlesian invasion and ended up as a Teyrn (roughly equivalent to Duke in medieval England), father-in-law to the King, and eventually regent over the land of Ferelden through a combination of clever military tactics, ambition, and backstabbing.
59** In the ''Warden's Keep'' DLC, you read passages from a journal about a young boy being made king because he was thought to be easily manipulated. However, he becomes DrunkWithPower and ends up executing entire noble families as punishment for them talking back to him.
60* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'':
61** Hawke starts out a penniless refugee forced to eke out a living in the slums of Kirkwall. By Act II, s/he is the head of a rich noble estate. By Act III, the Champion of Kirkwall. In one ending, [[spoiler:the new Viscount of Kirkwall]], in the other, [[spoiler:the banner of the mages' rebellion against the Chantry across all of Thedas]].
62** Samson is a largely inconsequential character, being a former Templar reduced to a junkie eking out an existence as a beggar that Hawke may or may not have the option to help. Come ''Inquisition'', he is the dangerous and powerful leader of the Red Templars, and one of two potential [[TheDragon Dragons]] to the game's main villain.
63* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', most of the backgrounds for the Inquisitor are otherwise unspectacular individuals such as a simple mercenary or a criminal thug who got caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. Said unlucky individual would go on to become someone who would not only save Thedas from a world-shattering threat but also dictate the politics of nations in their spare time.
64* In ''VideoGame/DragonFable'', humble blacksmith apprentice Konnan turns to fire magic and renames himself Drakonnan after the hero failed to save his family from the fire dragon Akriloth. Drakonnan quickly surpasses his EvilMentor Xan and Akriloth in terms of sheer evil.
65* ''Franchise/DragonQuest'':
66** Psaro The Manslayer from ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'' was a pretty boy who builds up a hate for humans because cruel men want his elf girlfriend's ruby tears and hurt her for them, and so he gathers monsters to invade other towns in order to kill the legendary hero/heroine, but is simply rumored by regular people as a random cruel arena fighter. [[spoiler:When Psaro's girlfriend, Rose, is actually killed by humans, he goes mad and seeks a way to evolve into a monster]], and you have to fight him as a final boss.
67** Dhoulmagus from ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'', a former apprentice of Rylus who's one of the descendants of the Seven Sages, starts of as a timid, nervous shy wreck of a man who wanted to learn magic, but after reading a grimorie without his master's premission and one nasty scolding from said master, he steals the Godbird Sceptre from Castle Trodain by posing as a [[MonsterClown jester]] and becomes possessed by [[spoiler:Rhapthorne, who orders him to murder the descendants of the Seven Sages, starting with Rylus, [[TheDogBitesBack who Dhoulamgus murders with sadistic glee]]]].
68* ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'': Porky Minch started off as Ness's neighbor - a [[PsychoSupporter devoted yet extremely obsessive]] [[SmallNameBigEgo egomaniac]], but too lazy and self-centered to do anything dangerous with it. Then he gets involved with [[EldritchAbomination Giygas]]. Once he gets his grubby little hands on some of Giygas's technology, he changes from a mere rotten brat to TheDragon to Giygas, or even part of a BigBadDuumvirate with him, ''OR'' even the downright BigBad, depending on your interpretation. He even gains an EldritchAbomination mech. Once that falls through and Giygas gets destroyed, he buggers off with the technology and disappears into time. [[spoiler:Come ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'', he's time-traveled so much that he's [[AGodAmI become immortal]], has raised an army, is perverting nature and [[OmnicidalManiac wants to destroy the world simply because]] ''[[VictoryIsBoring he's bored]]''.]]
69** Giygas himself is also an example, being twisted by his conflicted feelings about mankind from a sweet little alien baby raised by humans to a soulless EldritchAbomination [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm beyond comprehension]].
70* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
71** Each PlayerCharacter in the series, especially the ones who start out as prisoners, starts off about as close to a "nobody" as one can get. By the end of the game, they acquire skills, equipment, and abilities that make them one of the most powerful beings in all of Tamriel, and, in a few cases, SemiDivine or outright [[PhysicalGod Physical Gods]] capable of foiling the plans of truly god-like beings.
72** Vivec, the Dunmeri [[PhysicalGod Tribunal deity]], in the most [[UnreliableNarrator reliable version]] of his past, started off as the son of a poor Netch herder before rising up the ranks to become the NumberTwo to [[FounderOfTheKingdom Lord Nerevar]] as leader of the Chimer. Then, after [[TheRashomon probably]] having something to do with Nerevar's death, tapped into a forbidden power source to [[DeityOfHumanOrigin become a god]]. In supplementary works, Vivec also claims to have achieved "[[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence CHIM]]", a god-like state of being even beyond that of deities like [[OurGodsAreDifferent the Aedra and the Daedric Princes]].
73* ''VideoGame/EndlessSpace:'' Horatio apparently started as little more than a kid with [[MyBrainIsBig a weird head]] that others mocked, then moved on to be a SelfMadeMan with trillions at his disposal. This might already count due to his insanity, if it weren't for his self-imposed exile... but then, he came galloping back into the spotlight, as the planet he moved to had a few Precursor cloning vats he quickly figured out. He made a whole planet-covering empire consisting entirely of himself and his clones, and then enjoyed it so much he turned to the stars, and decided the whole galaxy could use some of that. In the timeline of the game, ''the'' Horatio are a star-spanning empire in the same standing as any other, and pose a very real risk of taking over the whole galaxy and fill it with only Horatios like him, with everyone else either destroyed, subjugated or assimilated.
74* ''VideoGame/EternalRadiance'': When the party researches the past of Eldareth, the leader of the Shadowborn, they learn [[spoiler:he was once a child from the destroyed village of Clearbell. He attempted to study magic at Veritas Academy, but he had little talent, causing him to drop out. He joins the Shadowborn and gains powerful, but insanity-inducing magic while studying Akleim artifacts.]]
75* Ruben Victoriano AKA Ruvik from ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin'' started out as a rich nobody, being the son of a wealthy landowner, and just so happened to have [[KidsAreCruel an unhealthy obsession with dissecting animals.]] Then his sister died saving him from a fire which horribly disfigured him in the process, and he went on to start dissecting people, kill his parents, and eventually be betrayed by the NebulousEvilOrganisation he worked for, [[VirtualRealityWarper becoming a very literal nightmare]]...
76* Races in ''VideoGame/EvolveIdle'' start out as primordial ooze and eventually evolve into cavemen (or cave elves or cave orcs, etc). Progressing through the tech tree will unlock new and more powerful technology and before you know it your race will be out spreading to new star systems and eventually conquering entire galaxies.
77* A general theme for the ''player character'' in the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games. [[VideoGame/Fallout1 Know-nothing k]][[VideoGame/Fallout3 ids in Vaults]], [[VideoGame/Fallout4 random schmucks from the Pre-War world]], [[VideoGame/Fallout2 dim tribesmen]], and [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas simple couriers]] - that's what they can all start out ''as''. But each and everyone of them can end up cranking a ''global nuclear apocalypse'' up to eleven. Entire towns of innocents slaughtered. Mindless nuclear detonations and KillSat hellfires. Children, old men, diplomats, guards, all dying, enslaved or ''worse'' in their passage. [[EvilPaysBetter And it usually pays better than playing as a good guy.]] By the end of each game, even what are effectively ''world powers'' are either quaking in fear of the protagonist, or good as ''dead''.
78** As an entire species, [[LightningBruiser Deathclaws]] are this. Start as harmless chameleons, but become the most terrifying creature on the planet after a little bit of genetic engineering. Averted with those engineered with human-level intelligence; they only ''look'' nightmarish, but are (usually) quite amicable.
79** From ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': Edward Sallow and Joshua Graham. One, a Follower of the Apocalypse with a chip on his shoulder and a fondness for history. The other, a Mormon missionary with fluency in tribal languages. After the two were captured by the Blackfoot tribe, Edward decided to teach them about war, becoming their chieftain, while Joshua served as his interpreter and, soon after, his second-in-command. Therein lies the origin of Caesar, the Malpais Legate, and the Legion.
80*** Worth pointing out that Caesar started out as a young initiate in the Followers of the Apocalypse. That is, he was raised by a loving mother and was a member one of the most idealistic and altruistic factions in the safest and most stable part of the post-apocalyptic United States, and still went on to become the most sadistic, cruel and threatening villain so far in the series barring possibly [[SociopathicSoldier Frank]] [[AxCrazy Horrigan]].
81*** Normal Bloatflies are merely [[GoddamnedBats annoying bugs]], but the Legendary Bloatfly from ''Old World Blues'' is one of the most difficult optional boss enemies.
82*** And now we can add [[EvilCounterpart Ulysses]] to this list, with the release of ''Lonesome Road'' and the revelation that he was originally just a member of a tribe conquered by Caesar's Legion. He eventually rose to become a Frumentarius, who after an event (the destruction of the prosperous town "Hopeville" that Ulysses [[DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife wanted to claim]] [[FightingForAHomeland as his new homeland]] and [[ShaggyDogStory was instead turned into]] "The Divide", the Falloutverse's version of ''{{Mordor}}'') caused by [[PlayerCharacter the Courier]] came to the realization that one person can shape history. He then began WalkingTheEarth for a bit before settling down to become a rancher/courier. But the revelation that the person responsible for the event was alive and kicking led to the events of ''Lonesome Road'', where [[spoiler: he plans to use the Divide's remaining warheads to nuke virtually everything west of the Great Plains in his ''own'' attempt to shape history]]. [[GreaterScopeVillain He's also responsible]] for the Legion discovering Hoover Dam (that incited the current bloody war between the NCR and Caesar's Legion), inspired [[ControlFreak Father Elijah]] to go to the [[DeathWorld Sierra Madre]] (which nearly resulted in Elijah killing the entire Mojave before conquering the East), taught [[BarbarianTribe the White Legs]] how to (nearly) annihilate the peaceful society of [[ChurchMilitant New Canaan]] so as to curry the Legion's favor, and almost convinced [[MadScientist the Think Tank]] to leave the Big Empty (which would've had them turn the West Coast into a smoldering crater).
83** The NCR, from the Great Khans' stand-point. The Khans used to terrorize and raid a tiny farming community called Shady Sands, and it was only the intervention of the first game's protagonist that prevented their destruction. Shady Sands goes on to encourage other communities to join together into a federation. One hundred years on, this tiny alliance has grown from a few small towns into a post-apocalyptic military and economic superpower that dominates California and has holdings in Nevada, Oregon and Baja. Uh oh.
84** In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', the Children of Atom go from being a group of largely-harmless, radiation-worshiping eccentrics who pose little threat to anybody in [[VideoGame/Fallout3 the Capital Wasteland]] to being a ''massive'' psychotic army of [[ChurchMilitant religious fanatics]] who worship Ghouls and other irradiated horrors, have ''de facto'' control over most of the East Coast, and indiscriminately attack anyone who gets too close with special [[MaximumHPReduction radiation-slinging]] weapons. In the ''Far Harbor'' DLC they even manage to turn an old submarine base in Maine into a heavily-defended fortress and [[spoiler: possibly]] threaten to cause what's left of the Pre-War state to be completely overrun by mutants and radioactive fog so they can "spread Atom's word."
85*** Also in ''4'', the [[WeHelpTheHelpless Commonwealth Minutemen]] have been subject to a series of {{Curb Stomp Battle}}s and are now reduced to [[LastOfHisKind a single surviving member]]. Most of the Commonwealth view them as a DoomedMoralVictor, and the Institute doesn't even spare a thought for them. [[spoiler:However, if you choose to help with rebuilding by gaining the trust of other settlements, recruiting their numbers and getting hold of heavier firepower, the Minutemen gain ''de facto'' control over much of the Commonwealth and can inflict an effortless CurbStompBattle on both the Institute ''and'' the Brotherhood of Steel simultaneously in their ending.]]
86*** [[BigBad The Institute]] are also this. Originally, they were just the descendants of the janitors and research students of the Falloutverse's M.I.T.-analogue, and simply wanted to develop a better world underground. However, as of 2287, the Institute are now a cabal of demigod-like {{Mad Scientist}}s who can easily mass produce {{Artificial Humans}}, have [[TheConspiracy a massive spy network]] that lets them [[MagnificentBastard effortlessly control the entire Commonwealth]], can produce and maintain a nigh-endless army of {{Killer Robot}}s led by [[SuperSoldier Terminator Expies]], and are '''the''' most advanced faction in the entire Post-War United States.
87*** Anyone who played ''3'' might remember Arthur Maxson, that little dork who sat around in the Citadel writing stories and crushing on Sarah Lyons. By the events of ''4'', he's now both a stone cold badass (he killed one of the aforementioned [[DemonicSpiders Deathclaws]] on his ''own'' at the age of [[ChildSoldiers 13]]) and the [[AFatherToHisMen charismatic]] & [[PrinciplesZealot fanatical]] leader of the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel.
88* In the GameMod for ''Skyrim'', ''VideoGame/{{Falskaar}}'', Vernan was initially just a monk at the Priory, but his experiments got gradually out of control and he was eventually expelled when an experiment nearly killed two people (by accident). When the time comes to do the quest, he's tampering with the Dream Crystal and is the head of a large chain of necromancers.
89* Jason Brody of ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' starts out as some twenty-something guy who parachuted onto the wrong island, ending up a prisoner to Vaas Montenegroto. One escape and brutal survival regime later, and Jason Brody becomes the most feared person on said island.
90* All of the [[BigBad main antagonists]] of the ''VideoGame/FatalFrame'' franchise started out as shrine maidens trying to fulfill the roles they were given. [[TragicVillain They became dangerous only after their respective rituals failed and the HellGate they were meant to appease corrupted them.]] Reika from the third game deserve a special mention, as she takes this trope to literal extremes (she haunts and kills her targets in their own nightmares).
91* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
92** Garland of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' was once the greatest swordsman of the Kingdom of Cornelia, and he then decided he wanted to take over his kingdom by holding the king's daughter for ransom, only to be beaten down by the Light Warriors of Lukhan's Prophecy. [[spoiler:Flash forward to the end of the game and Garland himself has become the source of all evil, The god of Discord: Chaos!]]
93** [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Five games later]], [[MonsterClown Kefka Palazzo]] went from being the court mage of [[TheEmpire the Gestahlian empire]] who'd run away at the mere possibility of coming to harm to becoming the god of magic, set on unraveling all of creation.
94** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'': [[spoiler:Delita]] starts as Ramza's [[TheLancer commoner sidekick]] and [[LastPlanStanding ends]] as [[LonelyAtTheTop the king of Ivalice]]. Also [[TheHero Ramza]] and [[FallenHero Wiegraf]] start as [[UnwittingPawn relatively low rank military leaders]] and end [[spoiler:[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu fighting]] and [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis becoming]] monsters respectively]].
95** Lightning in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' is, at the start of the game's story a sergeant in the regular army of the floating world Cocoon. After being corrupted by agents of the lower world Pulse, she becomes the leader of a RagtagBunchOfMisfits who singlehandedly topple the [[PhysicalGod Fal'cie]], and who slaughter their way through everyone and everything sent to stop them.
96*** The sequels up the ante significantly. By the time ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2 XIII-2]]'' rolls around, Lightning has become, with the exception of [[BigBad Caius Ballad]], the strongest human being in the setting. By the end of ''[[VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII Lightning Returns]]'', Lightning has become even more powerful, to the extent of [[spoiler:being quite possibly the [[PhysicalGod single most powerful being in existence]].]]
97** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'':
98*** Edda Pureheart, a [[WhiteMage conjurer]] who's apparently not very good at her job, as her first appearance has her party complaining that their only source of healing is potions, and her second shows the party blaming her for the death of Avere, the party's tank (and Edda's fiancé). This seems to be the last the player sees of her, until they start doing [[HardModeFiller the hard mode dungeons]].The quest to unlock the Tam-Tara Deepcroft (Hard) begins when [[spoiler:one of Edda's former party members receives an invitation to Edda and Avere's wedding. This creeps him out greatly, since Avere is ''quite dead'' at this point. Progressing through the dungeon reveals that Edda has gone mad with grief, ritually sacrificed one of her former party members, is trying to sacrifice the other (which you stop), and [[CameBackWrong brought Avere "back" as an ahriman]], who serves as the dungeon's end boss.]] The ending strongly suggests that Edda is still around... [[spoiler:and indeed, she serves as the first non-filler boss in the Palace of the Dead.]]
99*** This is revealed to be the origins of the Empire of Garlemald. Because the Garlean race are [[UnSorcerer biologically incapable of using magic]], they were hounded by the other races of Hydaelyn and driven from other lands into the harsh north. It was there that they discovered vast ceruleum deposits that lead to their industrialization and nigh unstoppable {{Magitek}} arsenal. The newly formed empire would go on to conquer most of the known world.
100* The animatronics from ''Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' count. They went from being unremarkable, [[UnnecessarilyCreepyRobot rather creepy machines]] meant to entertain children, to being [[AIIsACrapshoot kill-happy murderbots]] haunted by the souls of children murdered by a serial killer.
101* In the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series:
102** You can name a trainee or MagikarpPower character and they're almost certainly to be this[[note]]provided their start or merits aren't so bad they [[LowTierLetdown go past being merely inefficient and straight into nigh-unusuable]]...[[/note]]. They often start as an utter no-name villager, grunt or recruit, and steadily build in power until they're not only soloing entire armies by their lonesome, but potentially become the strongest unit in your army and potentially punching out ''gods.''
103** All of the trainees from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'' likewise qualifies for this, but [[NaiveEverygirl Amelia]] ''really'' deserves a mention due to [[DefectorFromDecadence the context she presents as]]. When you recruit her, she's meant to be nothing more than CannonFodder for Grado to send at its troops, with Amelia believing in the propaganda given the villainized accounts of Ephraim and Eirika's heroics. Upon realizing there's more to it than it seems, she defects, and can go from a weakling into an utter powerhouse who can, depending on your playthrough and route, not only slaughter most of Grado's generals by herself but ''[[TheKingslayer kill their king]]'' and potentially be the one to ''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu seal away Formortiis for good]]''. By this point, she had fully realized her desire to be a hero to protect the one's she loved, likely being freakishly strong at this point.
104** Ike in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn''. He starts off as a greenhorn mercenary knocking down common bandits for a pittance. He ends up [[spoiler:powerful enough to ''beat the shit out of half of a god'']], and in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' he's revered/feared as one of the strongest heroes who ever lived in the entire ''Fire Emblem'' multiverse.
105** The Avatar/Kris in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem]]'' is perhaps the best example in the franchise. They go from some random nobody knight wannabe to Marth's right hand and the single most dangerous person in his army, despite not having a drop of holy blood in their veins, a unique/semi-unique class, or even a personal weapon (unlike every other main character in the series).
106** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'':
107*** [[PlayerCharacter The Avatar]] starts off as an amnesiac tactician with nothing to their name sans the clothes on their back and the weapons on hand, who is found unconscious by the wayside by [[TheHero Chrom.]] Their [[BatmanGambit mastery of tactics]], coupled with [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind their strong work ethic]] and [[ThePowerOfFriendship bonds with their comrades]] quickly make their name known throughout the land as a mastermind capable of engineering crushing victories against insane odds. By the game's second arc the Avatar is known overseas for their prowess, and by the game's third arc, it turns out [[spoiler:their very existence is the lynchpin of the BigBad's ultimate plan to destroy the world ''and'' also the key to permanently putting a stop to it.]] This doesn't take into account other factors like the ability to [[RagsToRiches marry into nobility or even into royalty,]] or even marry the local religion's oracle, who happens to be [[DidYouJustRomanceCthulhu the daughter of said religion's patron goddess,]] thus gaining even ''more'' power and influence ([[GameplayAndStorySegregation not that it actually is acknowledged in-story]]). There is a dark twist to this, though, in that [[spoiler:in the original BadFuture, the Avatar truly became a nightmare when [[EldritchAbomination Grima]] took over their body and launched a ZombieApocalypse that effectively destroyed the world and damn near killed all life before the future children of the Shepherds traveled back in time to stop it from happening.]]
108*** The Avatar's comrades aren't too far behind, as the Shepherds, both collectively and [[RedBaron individually]], become famed as an entire crew of badasses who face incredible odds and consistently come out on top anyway.
109** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', [[spoiler:Nemesis, the man who became the strongest person on the continent, massacred the Children of the Goddess, and acts as the lynchpin of the villains' plan to upend the order of Fódlan]], started off as a common bandit at the same level as the bandit boss you bump off in the first missions of every ''Fire Emblem'' game.
110* ''VideoGame/ForeverHome'': Barclyss was originally nothing more than a street urchin who unknowingly had a connection to the Abyss Prism. Once the anti-Tren resistance recruits him and teaches him how to use magic, he becomes a violent psychopath. His fellow revolutionaries exile him out of disgust, causing him to join Tren and eventually command his own military faction. [[spoiler:Worse yet, he discovers how to use the Abyss Prism to turn his victims into mindless puppets, allowing him to build an army of the dead]].
111* In ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'', [[spoiler:Yomiel goes from being a computer programmer (albeit one of the best) to being a disembodied spirit with the ability to possess other people and move his own time-frozen corpse like a puppet.]]
112* Aldo Trapani, the real player character of ''VideoGame/TheGodfather: The Game'', was originally just the son of a Corleone-aligned baker. Ten years after his dad gets gunned down by Barzini goons, though, he gets taken under the wing of Luca Brasi and quickly becomes the top Corleone hatchetman, effectively crushing the other four families and becoming the new Don of NYC. Averted in the sequel, where Dominic is already established as Aldo's underboss prior to the start.
113* A staple of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto''. In fact, each game pushes it SerialEscalation.
114** Claude of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' goes from being a random mook (his first couple of jobs consist of driving prostitutes around and giving beatings to drug dealers who aren't paying their dues) to a feared and hated hitman who kills pretty much every gang leader in Liberty City.
115** Tommy of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' goes from being a random mook to ''owning'' Vice City.
116** CJ of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' goes from being a random gangbanger (not even leader of his own street gang!) to semi-respected businessman and head of a criminal empire that extends over the entire state.
117** [[SpicyLatina Catalina]] started out as a petty crook in ''San Andreas'' and served a brief stint as CJ's LadyMacbeth before going onto become the head of the Colombian cartel and the BigBad of ''III''.
118** Franklin Clinton of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' went from a gangbanger (though tired of the lifestyle) to one of the richest men around after being trained by a RetiredBadass and an AxCrazy SociopathicHero.
119* ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'': The Pact Commander begins as a complete novice to adventuring. Over the course of the main storyline, ''Living World'' and the expansions, they go on to slay two [[EldritchAbomination Elder Dragons]] and the [[WarGod God of Fire and War]]. They are also made TheChampion of the newest Dragon, kill a [[OurLichesAreDifferent mummified lich tyrant]] and spearhead alliance efforts between the playable races and [[FactionCalculus Orders of Tyria]]. The latter ultimately leads to the creation of [[BadassArmy the Pact]], a coalition army that enables the Pact Commander to defeat the first of the Elder Dragons.
120* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
121** Master Chief beings as a boy on an Earth colony, and quickly becomes arguably the greatest soldier of all time. He single-handedly carves his way through countless Covenant forces, blows up massive warships, wipes out a parasitic horde that's already devoured an entire galaxy, and goes toe-to-toe with a hivemind EldritchAbomination. He's also called the best soldier in the SPARTAN-II program, a unit made up entirely of genetically-augmented supersoldiers, and played a pivotal role in ending the human-Covenant war. The "nightmare" part really comes into play when you look at Master Chief from the Covenant's perspective. Imagine a 7-foot tall, seemingly invincible, fully-armored, faceless, emotionless machine, designed to kill you and your fellow soldiers. Now imagine it's being turned loose against you, and no matter what you throw at it -- grenades, snipers, tanks, Elites, Brutes, and Hunters -- it won't even slow down as it massacres your entire army. A nightmare, indeed. It is any wonder that their nickname for the Master Chief is "Demon"?
122** According to the extended lore, the Prophet of Truth began as a low-ranked clerk in the Covenant bureaucracy dealing with neglectful superiors while sympathizing with the lower ranked member species of the Covenant such as the Unggoy. But by through his natural smarts and cunning, he managed to claw and conspire his way up the ladder until he eventually became the leading Hierarch of the Covenant and supreme leader of its mighty military force. And immediately after he began the Human-Covenant War which would last for 28 years and led to the death of 23 billion humans and untold billions of his own Covenant followers, the destruction of at least 800 worlds and the near total extermination of all life in the galaxy when he almost managed to activate all the Halo rings from the Ark, forcing NightmareFuel incarnate [[EldritchAbomination the Flood]] [[EnemyMine to ally with Master Chief and the Arbiter]] to stop him from ending all life in his mad pursuit for godhood
123* ''VideoGame/TheHappyhillsHomicide'': The Clown, a OneManArmy SerialKiller [[spoiler: was initially just a unpopular janitor at a highschool. Then two jocks decided to scare him by setting a fire and it all went downhill from there.]]
124* While we aren't given too much light on ''VideoGame/{{Hatred}}'''s VillainProtagonist (or even his name, and is arguably a deliberately FlatCharacter), he seems to be an ordinary citizen who one day just snapped. TruthInTelevision about mass-murderers, sadly.
125* Aloy from ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' can be seen as this. Born as a member of the Nora, a rural, nature-worshiping tribe that fears technology, and then cast out until her nineteenth birthday, Aloy goes from being shunned and despised to achieving an almost mythical status within the tribe. This is largely thanks to her being able to subjugate otherwise-hostile robots and more importantly communicate directly with the Nora's deity [[CargoCult All-Mother]] (much to her disgust and chagrin, as she feels that being suddenly idolized by them is just as bad as them treating her as less than human).
126* Both Cole [=MacGrath=] and Delsin Rowe from the ''VideoGame/InFamous'' series can go through this, if the player plays the evil path. The former is simply a bike messenger who, by the end of the inFamous 2 evil playthrough, can turn into a gigantic creature that consists of molten rock and can form explosions that level entire city blocks. The latter, a normal guy with a tendency for vandalism, realizes that he can copy the powers of other superpowered beings, plans to visit a prison where all known superhumans are held to copy their powers, and thus can control basically anything he can see. Either of these "Nightmares" cannot be controlled by the player, however.
127* ''VideoGame/{{Judgment}}'' series:
128** ''VideoGame/{{Judgment}}'' has Dr. Yoji Shono, who was initially a run-of-the-mill scientist trying to perfect AD-9, his groundbreaking new drug. But when his drug turns out to be lethal for humans, Shono starts a huge, government-backed conspiracy to conceal the truth about AD-9, which involves kidnapping unwilling test subjects for secret human experiments, and murdering anyone who comes too close to discovering the truth.
129** ''VideoGame/LostJudgment'' has Jin Kuwana, who was once a schoolteacher who turned a blind eye to the brutal bullying of one of his students. Then the bullied student attempts suicide, only to end up in a coma, which kicks off Kuwana's path of vigilantism as he becomes a martial arts master in the criminal underworld and starts a crusade to murder bullies all around the country.
130* ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters The King of Fighters '97]]'' gives us the New Faces Team, a trio of musicians who generally act like goof balls and never take anything seriously. [[spoiler:Reach the end of the game and they're revealed to be Knights of Orochi and their playful personality gives way to sadistically punishing opponents. Then things take another step when Chris, the youngest member of the group, turns out to be the vessel for Orochi himself!]]
131* ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'': At first, Marx appears to just be another harmless, [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter cutesy]] resident of Dream Land, but in fact he [[spoiler:tricks the sun and moon into fighting, gets Kirby to summon Nova to stop the fight and then uses Nova's power in an attempt to take over the galaxy.]] Then, in ''Kirby Super Star Ultra'', [[spoiler:he is resurrected from his former defeat in a demonic soul form by absorbing Nova's power]].
132** The Three Mage Sisters from ''VideoGame/KirbyStarAllies'' were once [[spoiler: three young girls brought to within an inch of their lives within their harsh elemental environments before Hyness found them. Now they are three of the most powerful sorceresses in the universe.]]
133* This is seen in ''VideoGame/LandsOfLore III''. While the {{Big Bad}}s of the previous two games were the sorcerous leader of the EvilArmy, and then the setting's [[CrystalDragonJesus Crystal Dragon Satan]], the main villain of the 3rd game turns out to be one the series' secondary supporting characters, who starts the game as comic relief and progressively turns villainous as he grows increasingly desperate while his plan to avoid death begins to unravel.
134* ''VideoGame/LaPucelle'' heroine Prier was originally a demon hunting nun. [[NunTooHoly A nun who likes using bone-crushing kicks to solve almost every problem]], but clearly an otherwise heroic nun who aspired to be the Maiden of Light. However, she had a desire for power which lead to her becoming an Overlord in one of the endings of the original game. That ending was eventually canonized by the game's UpdatedRerelease ''Ragnarok''. By the time of the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series, Prier had become synonymous with "FallenHero", having become an infamous BloodKnight that seeks to challenge powerful opponents throughout the Creator/NipponIchi multiverse. That said, [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor whether she's good or evil pretty much changes between games]], and even in the UpdatedReRelease there were two endings that picked either one, so she can be either a straight-up FallenHero or just a DarkMessiah...[[BloodKnight who either way really loves fighting others]].
135* In ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', Joel, though a badass early on, goes from a typical smuggler whose reputation is relatively unestablished compared to his partner, to a one man army who is ready, willing, and able to plow through hordes of enemies, human or infected, to keep Ellie safe.
136** Taken to extremes in the Winter chapter when he has just woken up from a serious case of [[spoiler:ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice]] and so terrifies [[spoiler:David]]'s men that they run away in terror from a single, injured, and relatively ill-equipped man.
137* ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'': When the series begins, Kain is a simple human nobleman... until he's assassinated by brigands and resurrected as a vampire by the {{necromancer}} Mortanius. By the time of ''Soul Reaver'', he's become a powerful VampireMonarch and the GodEmperor of Nosgoth, with very few beings in the land, human or otherwise, aware that he WasOnceAMan.
138* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
139** According to ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'''s Japanese manual and one of the Maiden's expositions, Ganondorf was seen as a mere thief who only gained notoriety after the Triforce turned him into the King of Evil Ganon. Even though he was said to be the leader of a tribe of thieves, details about that tribe are obscured and almost forgotten. This was later subverted via retcon in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' where it's revealed that Ganondorf was not only a well-known figure back then, but his tribe was actually a race of humans known as the Gerudo.
140** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', we also find out that the Skull Kid was a kid who liked to joke around, and ended up possessed by an evil mask, summoning a giant moon to the ground.
141** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'' has Vaati, who started out as a miniscule elf and became a powerful sorcerer.
142* ''VideoGame/LibraryOfRuina'':
143** [[VillainProtagonist You]]. Yes, '''YOU'''. At the start of the game, [[EldritchLocation the Library]], or the former L. Corp you control was just something that people barely took seriously, and the Guests you invite were people who just went in for some riches. Things quickly spiral out of control from there as you claim the lives of more and more people, [[spoiler:dangerous personalities start using it as an execution chamber]], and it's clear that you [[InvincibleHero canonically didn't lose a single fight]]. At a very high threat level, the authorities of the City will take you serious enough that they will send exclusively their big guns against you.
144** [[spoiler:Carmen.]] She started as some sort of Nest resident who would often go to the backstreets to preach her seemingly wack ideologies, and it's said to be difficult to take her seriously unless one really pays attention. In fact, [[spoiler:Carmen]] also looks like any other city-goer instead of any sort of credible threat. However, fast foward to ''Library of Ruina'', and it turns out [[spoiler:she has directly instigated the ''whole'' in-game incident revolving around the Library by instigating events that would lead to people being baited, distorted and killed, advising Angela to help her with her deal and compromising the City itself in an unprecedented magnitude as an [[EldritchAbomination omnipresent, invisible force]]]].
145** There's also [[spoiler:Phillip]], a moderately experienced Grade 5 Fixer who works alongside his Seonbae Yuna and his mentor Salvador. However, in an expedition to the Library, [[spoiler:Yuna criticizing Phillip for being inept and her offhand mention of celebrating in Salvador's house was heavily implied to lead Phillip into delusionally beliving that Yuna was going to fornicate with Salvador and cheat with his wife and children. In reality, Yuna didn't think about any of these and you killed both her and Salvador, preventing his doubts to be soothed. Since then, Phillip falls into a [[TraumaCongaLine long road to sorrow]], eventually turning into a Distortion that killed people in a type of severity worse than the Pianist, said to be the most dangerous Distortion ever recorded.]] And the fun doesn't even end here: [[spoiler:it's implied that you and Carmen were ''deliberately'' messing with him just to get some authorities baited in and killed.]]
146* ''VideoGame/LiveALive'': The BigBad started out as [[spoiler:a beloved knight named Oersted fighting against a demon lord... in a backwater kingdom whose name has been lost to time, against a demon lord who ''died of old age''. In short, a hero among nobodies. And then his spiteful toxic friend decided to make his life hell. He went insane, taking on the mantle of the new demon lord, [[ThePowerOfHate yet his hatred was so great]] that it gave him the power of ''time travel'', allowing him to incarnate across seven time periods and turn the forgotten kingdom into the capital of an interdimensional threat to humanity. Said friend's ghost was outright mortified at what he'd unleashed.]]
147* In ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'', the main antagonist, Antasma, was originally just a normal bat until he started feeding on nightmares, which turned him into an evil nightmare creature. He then gets trapped in the Dream World (almost literally becoming a nightmare) by the Pi'illo folk and is somehow forced to assume the form of a small bat.
148* It's mentioned in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' lore that The Illusive Man, VisionaryVillain and leader of human extremist group Cerberus was once a normal man with a family named Jack Harper.
149** Also, from the Reapers' perspective, [[TheHero Shepard]] themself. Starts out as a farming kid/{{street urchin}}/spacer depending on the player's choice, and an ordinary soldier, but becomes the single greatest threat to the Reapers in over a billion years.
150*** This is especially prevalent if Shepard becomes a Renegade. The player has the option to portray Shepard as a near-VillainProtagonist and sociopath, willing to do things from ruthlessly killing innocent people for the good of the mission to [[KickTheDog shooting an adoring fan]] in the foot.
151** The Shadow Broker turns out to be [[spoiler:a member of a primitive species who was enslaved and trained to be the original Shadow Broker's [[TheDragon chief enforcer]]. He killed the original Shadow Broker and took his place.]]
152** Up to a point, the Krogan race. A [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy proud warrior race]] that was way behind the rest of the galaxy technologically, they were eventually used by the Salarians as soldiers against the Rachni. With exposure to other cultures and better technology, the Krogan became a threat to all other races, to the point the Salarians had to cull their numbers with the Genophage.
153** The Geth are another example. They started their lives as simple labor devices with the ability to learn, but eventually developed the ability to philosophise. Fearing they'd want their freedom and rebel, their creators decided to wipe them out... only to lose the war so ''badly'', they were driven from their homeworld and forced to become interstellar vagrants. When the Geth finally reappear three centuries later, they're allied with the Reapers and try to take over the galaxy. [[spoiler: Although it's later revealed the "True" Geth actually desire peace with their creators and only acted in self-defence. The Geth who have allied with the Reapers are "Heretics" and only represent a small minority.]]
154** [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 Subject Zero, AKA Jack]], full stop. She could have just been a regular girl, had [[WellIntentionedExtremist Cerberus]] not gotten hold of her. But, because of that, she is ''the'' most powerful human [[MindOverMatter Biotic]] in the galaxy (depending on your beliefs of Adept/Vanguard/Sentinel Shepard's own Biotic skill), on par with [[OneManArmy Asari Matriarchs]].
155** [[spoiler:Shepard's clone]] started out as a simple source of spare parts during Project Lazarus, and eventually becomes a serious villain with a highly xenophobic agenda.
156* In ''VideoGame/MasterOfMagic'' if you play on the difficulty setting 'impossible' the player generally spends most of the game so far behind [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the other wizards]] as to seem completely irrelevant. Yet if the player survives long enough it is possible they'll turn the tables on them.
157** Taken to the logical extreme when playing the 'Worst Wizard Possible' on impossible. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GJ_Zx-muJs#t=1h13m10s Here's what the power looked like]] when the game was well underway (the player is the purple line). And [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwYLs_rM83k#t=35m25s here's an example of the player's magical might]] mid-way through. And [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlPIDLCwtV0#t=2h56m15s here's how it all ended.]] Right as the 'worst wizard ever' completed the spell of mastery. (look at how far ahead the yellow and blue lines started ahead of the purple one. And how much it jumped at 1421).
158* Examples in the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series:
159** Ocelot in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' is introduced as a funnyish, SpaghettiWestern-themed villain with a relatively boring power, in one of the game's easiest boss fights. The end of the game reveals he was TheMole, and in the next game he's ''extremely'' threatening. In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', he's revealed to be pulling the strings and the destroyer of the entire world.
160** A major plot point in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' invokes this: [[spoiler:Venom Snake is ''not'' actually Big Boss, but was actually an otherwise normal combat medic in Militaires Sans Frontieres before XOF destroyed Big Boss's Mother Base and dismantled MSF. He risked his life to save Big Boss, becoming gravely injured, falling into a coma, undergoing hypnotherapy, and receiving reconstructive surgery to turn him into Big Boss's doppleganger. He would go on to lead the Diamond Dogs, destroy XOF, kill Skull Face, and found Outer Haven. The "Big Boss" that Solid Snake had to contend with in the original ''VideoGame/MetalGear1''? That's not the real Big Boss, but a former combat medic who went on to be his exact duplicate in ''every'' way!]]
161* Another heroic example is of course Samus Aran of the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series. The SpacePirates first encountered her as a harmless girl, orphaned when they attacked her home colony. Years later some bloodwork, warrior training from the Chozo and a suit of PoweredArmor of Chozo origin has turned that little girl into a OneWomanArmy with a grudge. She cuts through their soldiers with contemptuous ease, and turns the pirates' technology against them. She can effortlessly hack their data networks and bypass their security systems. She doesn't just wipe out bases, [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds she leaves destroyed planets in her wake]]. She is [[TheDreaded the Hunter]], the one threat in all the galaxy the Pirates are flat-out terrified of, all because one of their raids over a decade ago left one survivor.
162** On the other end of the spectrum, we have Dark Samus. [[spoiler: Starting off as nothing more than a simple Metroid, the Leviathan that impacted Tallon IV turned it into [[BigBad Metroid Prime]], the Worm of Chozo lore, who then proceeded to hound Samus for the entire trilogy, culminating in it not only corrupting Samus with [[TheCorruption Phazon]] but becoming the very heart of Phaaze.]]
163* Can be invoked by the player in ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor'' and ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfWar'' by dying to a low ranking uruk, giving them a name, backstory, rank, and a new set of armor. If the player continuously loses fights against them, they will get more powerful, becoming a warchief, and even an overlord, of which there are only five or six of in the army. This can easily make them the [[ThatOneBoss the most difficult enemy in the game]].
164** The Hammer of Sauron, one of the three Black Captains who dominate all of the uruks, used to carry stretchers for Mordor's wounded, but picking up Sauron's mace turned him into the embodiment of Sauron's might in battle.
165* In the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' series, Vladimir Makarov started out this way. He was originally just another soldier in Zakhaev's army, but through showing a great deal of skill and loyalty (including saving his life when Price shot him at Pripyat in 1996) he was elevated to one of Zakhaev's top commanders. Then when Zakhaev died, he took over the reins of the more extremist elements of the Russian Ultranationalist party, and from there, the world began to ''burn''....
166* [[spoiler:The Dark Curse]] from ''VideoGame/{{Miitopia}}'' was once a regular Mii who suffered the AllTheOtherReindeer treatment and became vengeful and evil as a result.
167* ''VideoGame/MinecraftDungeons'': The Arch-Illager, Archie, was shunned by his own kin and met with scorn from everyone else. That all changed upon obtaining the [[ArtifactOfDoom Orb of Dominance]].
168* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'', with its first expansion pack, is maybe an even better example. At the start, protagonist is just another inhabitant of West Harbor, not really remarkable [[spoiler: except for the shard]]. At the end of Mask of the Betrayer he/she can, if you so choose, become a [[spoiler:superpowered abomination that devours souls, and is capable of doing that to any number of people at once and even to gods. Cue a RoaringRampageOfRevenge of eating its way across Toril and the Planescape.]]
169** [[spoiler: For all we know, Gorion's ward could be among the gods that get eaten.]]
170* ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'' has Simeon [[RedBaron the Puppet Master]] as the ArcVillain of Primrose's route. He started out as a humble gardener's apprentice working for Primrose's family when she was a child, and the two of them had a budding romance. Years later, he's the leader of the Obsidian crime syndicate, and using its vast resources to fuel his sadistic need to put others through tragedy, Primrose in particular.
171* The PlayerCharacter of ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds''. At the game's beginning, they're a HumanPopsicle. Just one of countless colonists in stasis, and with a list of unimpressive backgrounds (Bartender, janitor, literal dirt farmer) to choose from. They go on to quite literally change the galaxy, and leave piles of bodies in their wake while doing it.
172* ''VideoGame/PhantasmagoriaAPuzzleOfFlesh'' definitely uses this trope when the origins of the Hecatomb are finally revealed: it's actually [[spoiler:the original Curtis Craig (not the one you've been playing). He started out as an innocent child who just happened to be in the same room as Paul Warner while he was looking for test subjects. Flung into another dimension and forced to watch as he was replaced by an alien duplicate, he plotted revenge; twenty years later, he's developed powerful psychic abilities, and he wants the duplicate's body for his own]].
173* In ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' and ''Platinum'', Cyrus appears to be this. He is explicitly stated to be a quiet boy who tinkered with machines and lived in Sunnyshore City with his family. Then he grows up, establishes a business empire and a criminal cult, and tries to destroy the universe. And he's ''[[ImprobableAge twenty-seven]]''.
174** Also in the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' series, Beedrill. Originally an early-game [[ComMon common bug]], it gained a lot of power in ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' in the form of a Mega Evolution, giving it Attack and Speed on par with some legendaries.
175** Mega Evolution did this to a lot of weak and forgotten Pokémon. Take Mawile, for example. It was introduced in Generation 3 as a sort of counterpart to Sableye, but unlike Sableye (which had no weaknesses and was a useful support with its Prankster ability) it lacked redeeming factors to compensate for its abysmal stats. Despite its Steel typing and its useful Intimidate ability, Mawile was all but left to rot. Then Generation 6 came around. Suddenly Mawile gained the Fairy typing on top of Steel, which made it either resistant or outright [[NoSell immune]] to 11 out the 18 types in the game and weak to only '''two'''. It also gained a Mega Evolution which gave it, of all things, '''Huge Power'''. Suddenly its 380 base stat total effectively became '''585''', with effectively '''210 attack''' and the movepool to take advantage of it, coupled with competent defenses (especially on the physical side) along with its ridiculously tanky typing. Mawile was now an absolute monster capable of shrugging off most of the moves in the game while dishing out plenty of pain in return. And that Intimidate we mentioned before? It's not made irrelevant by its Mega. Mawile can now pretty much guarantee a swap and use it to freely set up a Swords Dance, sharply raising its already ludicrous attack. According to Smogon tier lists it struggles a bit in Ubers, but that still means that '''it made it to the Uber tier'''.
176* In ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', [[spoiler:we find out that Cave Johnson's secretary, Caroline, underwent BrainUploading on Cave's orders after his death, as he felt Aperture would be in good hands with her. The computer her brain was uploaded into? [[AIIsACrapshoot GLaDOS]], the rightfully feared and nigh-omnipotent goddess-queen of a vast underground empire.]]
177** The same trope can also said to have been invoked in [[spoiler: [[BewareTheNiceOnes Wheat]][[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds ley]], who turned from being just one of the many personality cores within the Aperture Laboratories (and one programmed to be a laughable idiot, no less) to [[WhosLaughingNow being in charge of the entire facility]]...for a while.]]
178** [[ForScience Aperture Science]] started out making shower curtains. Then they move on to other bathroom appliances, and then ''[[MadScientist somehow]]'' figured out how to invent and perfect both teleportation and (later on) inter-dimensional travel. When you consider that ''Half-Life'' takes place in the same continuity, this makes Aperture the most advanced entity ''in the entire multiverse''.
179* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' is the embodiment of this trope. The player character starts waking up from death relatively powerless and gradually becomes the scourge of the US Army.
180** In the plot it happens ''twice''. First, by all accounts innocent college student Elizabeth Greene became an immortal host for [[TheVirus the Redlight virus]] and a [[WalkingWasteland One]] [[{{Plaguemaster}} Woman]] ZombieApocalypse. Second, [[spoiler:poverty-stricken, abused foster child Alexander Mercer grew up to get a degree in genetics, create the deadliest virus in mankind's history and with it attempt to take the whole human race with him when he died. That accidentally made his corpse the immortal host for the Blacklight virus and a PersonOfMassDestruction -- the player character]].
181* ''VideoGame/RainWorld'' has Artificer: originally just a slugcat mother of two, existing as little more than a link in the food chain that is the Rain World ecosystem. After the loss of her babies to the Scavengers, however, she becomes a genocide machine who single handedly wipes out Scavenger enclaves, butchering them by the dozens in her thirst for revenge. She is without exception the most violent slugcat in the game, able to manufacture explosives from nothing more than stray rocks and her saliva, detonate herself to fling back enemy spears or stun foes, and is the only slugcat able to latch on to an enemy and maul them to death. It's notable that the campaigns which canonically take place after hers have far fewer Scavengers, and they are ''much'' more nervous around Slugcats and slugpups in particular.
182* ''VideoGame/RepublicTheRevolution'': The player character starts out as the son of middle-class couple. After [[PresidentEvil Karasov]] has them arrested and likely killed, the character will eventually grow up to be the leader of the faction that overthrows Karasov, and woe betide anyone who gets in his way.
183* Late in ''VideoGame/ReturnToZork'', it's revealed that [[BigBad Morphius]] started out as [[spoiler: a lump of Illumynite rock that was accidentally impregnated by all the evil magic scattered during [[TheMagicGoesAway the Great Diffusion]]. Having been dug up by the dwarves, made a museum exhibit and titled "The Cluster," it eventually [[DemonicPossession took control]] of the mage Canuck, and used him to escape underground and build a new empire.]]
184* ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheThirdPower'': Dimitri Noraskov was onced a peasant who would go on to become a war hero. He eventually organized a coup against the previous Arkadyan king in order to become a tyrannical emperor.
185* In ''VideoGame/SailingEra'', Abdullah starts his story as a dirt poor pearl diver, and by the midpoint has become a renowned and feared pirate hunter.
186* At the start of the ''Videogame/SaintsRow'' series, the 3rd Street Saints are [[GangBangers a small street gang]] with the Playa, [[StumbledIntoThePlot previously some guy who picked the worst possible time to go for an evening stroll]], being their newest recruit. The second game has the player character becoming the leader of the Saints as they go up against three GangOfHats and a MegaCorp to take control of Stilwater. By the time of the third game, the Saints operate a media empire that includes clothing stores, energy drinks and even film deals. The fourth has the Boss becoming President of the United States, meaning the Saints now rule America as kleptocrats, and though [[spoiler: the Earth is destroyed early on in the game, what remains of the Saints eventually kill the intergalactic warlord who blew it up and seize control of his entire space fleet. By the beginning of ''VideoGame/SaintsRowGatOutOfHell'', they elevated themself even further to GodEmperor!]]
187* ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'' features quite a few imposing figures with startling humble origins, some of them friendly, most of them not.
188** If questioned about her past, [[TheHandler Kirsten Geary]] will admit that she started out as just "an ordinary Valley Girl," right up until she ended up getting kidnapped by two Illuminati sorcerers looking for human sacrifices. Unfortunately for the "frat-boy necromancers," they didn't [[MuggingTheMonster check her pockets for duct-tape and mace]] -- resulting in the two eventually confessing to Illuminati membership over the course of an impromptu torture session. Disappointed at the lack of standards among the society's members, Geary decided to join the Illuminati herself and help out with their employee handbook. Decades on, Kirsten Geary is a high-ranking executive in charge of tutoring and directing Illuminati players, and easily the most disturbing of all the faction handlers encountered in the game.
189** [[PlantPerson Jack O'Lantern]], one of the most celebrated of all Solomon Island's monsters, actually began life as a penniless Irish immigrant by the name of Jack the Lad. Having been forced from his homeland by the famine, he ended up in Solomon Island and sought employment at [[EvilSorcerer Archie Henderson]]'s farm - where he made the mistake of seducing his employer's daughter and bedding her right in the middle of the farm's pumpkin patch. Henderson's [[ThePunishment punishment]] left Jack as a monstrous hybrid with a penchant for luring travelers off the path and butchering them into compost for his pumpkin patches; over a century after his transformation, Jack O'Lantern is showing no signs of easing up on the serial-killings.
190** Also, Archie Henderson himself; quite a few characters profess astonishment at the fact that a simple farmer [[note]] albeit one with a talent for magic [[/note]] managed to leave such a mark on the island's history. Over a hundred years after his death, Henderson's legacy lingers on in the form of Jack O'Lantern, [[ScaryScarecrows the Scarecrows]], and even the dark energies under [[AmusementParkOfDoom Atlantic Island Park]] - and if the events of ''The Park'' are any evidence, his atrocities still frighten the people of Kingsmouth.
191** Towards the end of Issue 11, [[DarkMessiah Philip Marquard]] and the rest of the [[ChurchOfHappyology Morninglight]] are revealed to have started out like this: [[spoiler: they were originally created by [[HumanoidAbomination Lilith]] as a convenient source of easily-duped servants for use in her attempts to seize control of [[EldritchAbomination the Dreamers]] - useful but ultimately harmless. Unfortunately for her, the Dreamers were able to contact Marquard and convert him to their worship, and the rest of the Morninglight followed. By the start of the game, the once-pliable cult has turned on Lilith via two major assassination attempts - the first of which left Tokyo infected with the Filth, the second of which left Lilith imprisoned by the Host - and now work solely to release the Dreamers from their slumber.]]
192** The Black Signal, AKA "John." Introduced as an electronic EldritchAbomination haunting Tokyo, it's later revealed that [[spoiler: he started out as a neurotic outsider with a self-confessed case of NoSocialSkills and no idea what to do with his life. Recruited by the Fear Nothing Foundation and gradually corrupted into a secret Morninglight cultist, he was selected as a suicide bomber charged with delivering the Filth bomb to Orochi Tower. The release of the Filth essentially caused him to effectively AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence - not only is he arguably one of the most powerful of the Dreamers' servants in the world, but he's actually a lesser Dreamer of a sort.]]
193* ''VideoGame/SeraphicBlue'':
194** Georg Roseburg started as an ordinary village pharmacist trying to make ends meet with his daughter. Then the CMGC contacted him and helped him start a corporation in exchange for helping them with their plan to create Seraphic Blue. Unfortunately, the once humble pharmacist ended up corrupted by his political and corporate power, to the point where he wants to help the Gaia Cancers destroy the world simply to feed his own ego.
195** [[spoiler:The BigBad, Er, is a downplayed example. She started as a SplitPersonality of Vene, which means she gets stronger as her original self gains power as Seraphic Blue's wing. At first, she's only able to communicate with her followers, but is unable to act for herself. Once she becomes a separate being from the original Vene, she goes on to become a PhysicalGoddess with the power to destroy the world.]]
196* In ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'', Seiji Kato started off as a lovable goof with a kind heart, an eagerness to please, a crush on his superior officer, and next to no knowledge of magic, instead having studied ''geography''. He summoned the ancient gods of Japan in an attempt to completely rewrite history and erase an entire timeline. Because his "girlfriend" died twice on him.
197* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'':
198** From ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'', [[PhysicalGod the]] [[ChosenOne Demi-Fiend]]. OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent one moment. [[ImplacableMan Implacable]] [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu godslayer the next]]. If his [[{{Superboss}} appearance]] in ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'' is of any indication, he's powerful enough to trivially whack even ''other ''SMT'' protagonists at their full power'' into next week.
199** From the same game, Chiaki goes from the perfectly nice, if somewhat haughty, friend of the protagonist, to [[spoiler:a cruel and sadistic DarkMessiah attempting to quite literally remake the world in the image of her SocialDarwinist philosophy, commanding an enormous legion of demons and archangels, and committing an outright genocide on the Manikins. It's telling that she's the only one of the possible final bosses to be fought in ''every'' ending path, and that in a game with such a GrayAndGrayMorality theme, Chiaki is the only character outright described as ''evil.'']]
200** Ultimately, it can be said that most if not ALL of the ''Shin Megami Tensei'' main characters become this by the end, many of them starting off as average highschoolers and ending up as the biggest badasses in the game. Even ''[[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney Strange Journey]]'''s protagonist, who is in the armed forces at the beginning and thus already a badass by human standards, is small fry compared to the demons of the Schwarzwelt. By the end, he becomes the single most powerful being in it. Also notable is [[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV Flynn]], who started off as a ''dirt-poor rube of a labor caste'' before becoming the Samurai who punched out [[spoiler: Merkabah, Lucifer, and a rather large assortment of homicidal OlympusMons]].
201** On the more nightmarish end is Nanashi of ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'', who, by the end of the Massacre route, [[spoiler:kills everyone in his universe. Including YHVH]]. Not bad for an underaged brat from the underground districts who got himself killed on his first outing.
202** Even worse, [[GodIsEvil The Great Will]], or YHVH. He was once a {{God}} among many, with only a few more followers than the norm. This was enough to allow him to destroy and demonize his opponents, and led to him becoming a MadGod ruling across universes and the ultimate manifestation of the concept of Law.
203** Tayama from ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' was such a small fry before the Firmament rose, a Ginza chef comments he wouldn't have reached the entrance of his posh restaurant. Post-Firmament, he became the leader of the immense Yakuza-esque Ashura-kai, seizing control of six of the seven National Defense Divinities, cutting deals with demons through means so horrifying ''Lilith the Mother of Monsters'' does not hesitate in the slightest in considering "true evil".
204* BigBad [[MadScientist Demichev]] of ''VideoGame/{{Singularity}}'' -- it happens that [[spoiler:YOU'RE saving him from an inferno that should have killed him]] -- rises to power in the USSR and leads it to world conquest. [[spoiler:And in one of the endings, [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure ''Barisov'']].]]
205* Plenty of villains in the ''VideoGame/SlyCooper'' series are this, but one notably subject is the Indian [[FantasticDrug spice]] lord Rajan from ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves''. He started out as a street urchin who made it big with spice dealing, but is trying to convince everybody, including himself, that he's royalty.
206* In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', Chaos, the watery humanoid being who grows bigger and stronger by consuming Chaos Emeralds, is called the god of destruction, and is responsible for destroying nearly all of the Echidnas, started off as an ordinary Chao, one of the adorable little critters you can raise in the eponymous gardens, until exposure to the Master Emerald mutated him. Then the Echidna tribe tried to take the Chaos Emeralds for themselves, hurting several Chao in the process. [[BerserkButton That resulted in Chaos]] ''[[RoaringRampageOfRevenge earning]]'' [[UnstoppableRage his title.]]
207* In ''VideoGame/SonicForces'', [[spoiler:Infinite was once the leader of a group of jackal bandits that resided in a far desert, until one day he decided to raid Dr. Eggman's base for some loot, leading to a confrontation with Eggman and coming into contact with the Phantom Ruby, that showed Infinite's desire for a world completely destroyed. Impressed by this, Eggman offers Infinite the chance to make both of their dreams a reality. After failing to protect the facility from Shadow and throwing a tantrum that he himself is weak, he is fused with the Phantom Ruby, resulting in Infinite becoming a weapon of destruction and leading the Eggman empire to take over the world.]]
208* ''VideoGame/SoulCalibur'''s Siegfried was the leader of a rag-tag bunch of thieves; not much to write home about. After robbing a convoy [[spoiler:where he mistakenly decapitates his own father and quickly loses his mind over it, convincing himself that someone else did it]], he takes it upon himself to locate Soul Edge, thinking that his father's murderer deserves no less than death by that blade. He finds it, alright.
209** In ''Soul Calibur III'' [[spoiler: Siegfried and Nightmare become separated. So Siegfried is no longer a Nightmare. He's just responsible for unleashing a villain that lacks any semblance of a conscience or humanity whatsoever. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Oopsie.]]]] Then in ''Soul Calibur IV'' in his ending [[spoiler:he allows Soul Calibur to bring "peace" to the world by covering it with crystals to trap it in stasis forever]].
210** Not to mention Soul Edge itself: it was once a normal sword, but by consuming the blood and souls of countless people, it became something much more.
211* S.H.O.D.A.N from ''VideoGame/SystemShock''. She was once a humble service A.I. who, at the behest of an extremely CorruptCorporateExecutive, had her emotion blockers removed. This turned her into a diabolical evil mastermind, who, as one character puts it, "shouldn't be allowed to play God. She's far too good at it."
212* In ''VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters'', [[PlayerCharacter Revya]] starts off as a normal person, living in a hidden village with his/her best friend. Then, his/her soul gets fused with Gig's and[[spoiler:,should you choose the Demon Path, becomes so powerful that he/she destroys two of the World Eaters with ease, takes over the entire kingdom of Orviska and ends up ''[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroying all of reality]]'']].
213* ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'': Kerrigan was originally a soldier turned rebel... unusually strong psychic powers for a human, but nothing too unbelievable. What does she become? The Queen of Blades, the Heart of the Swarm, or, in her own words: "Queen Bitch of the Universe"; she has the ''entire'' Zerg Swarm under her control and more sheer psychic power than any other known being in the universe.
214* The Spemin in the first ''VideoGame/{{Starflight}}'' are described as the whipping boys of the galaxy. By the second game, encountering them with a weak ship pretty much means death.
215* From the perspective of the Tal Shiar, D'Tan in ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline''. When he was introduced in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', he was just one kid in Spock's Reunificationist movement. Over the time-skip between the end of TV series and the beginning of the game, he turns into the leader of one of the two major anti-Tal Shiar resistance movements, leading a rag-tag refugee fleet with contacts in many Romulan (and even Reman) colonies. Over the course of the game, D'Tan's resistance movement then grows into the most powerful faction in Romulan space, integrating the other major resistance movement and ending up as a Republic controlling most of Romulan space (with D'Tan still in command) while the ''Tal Shiar'' has been reduced to rebels with only a few isolated sympathetic colonies to call for aid from. The Tal Shiar ends up trying to bribe D'Tan in a desperate bid to keep some measure of their former influence, which fails miserably.
216* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', ''you'' as a Sith Inquisitor. You [[MadeASlave start as a slave]] being sent for some [[TrainingFromHell do-or-die Sith training]], but by the end of your character quest you'll have killed three powerful Sith lords who got in your way, repeatedly humiliated Darth Thanton by [[KneelBeforeZod making him kneel before you]] in front of the Dark Council, and ''joined'' the Dark Council. To drive the point home, you can mock and kill the SmugSnake of an overseer who relentlessly bullied you at the start of the game. Oh and you get your own [[spoiler:Death star, granted its one of many superweapons but that is still an impressive feat.]]
217** The Bounty Hunter starts off as a talented gunfighter looking to enter a Mandalorian competition. Through the story they not only win, joining fellow Great Hunt winners as the best Bounty Hunters around. By the end of the the storyline they've essentially become the Dark Council's personal enforcer as well as the most hated terrorist of the Republic.
218** The Smuggler begins the story as an outlaw who just had their ship stolen. At the end of the story they end up becoming a renowned Republic Privateer as well as potentially the most powerful crimelord of the galaxy.
219** The Sith Emperor Vitiate is perhaps the best example of this. He was born over 1300 years ago on a minor sith-controlled planet known as Medriaas, the bastard son of the planet's lord Dramath and a farmer's wife. His mother was supposed to drown him, but loved him too much and raised him. After discovering the truth about his parentage, he killed his adoptive father, his mother, Lord Dramath, conquered the planet, sacrificed every surviving sith lord of the great hyperspace war to gain immortality and led the Empire into exile. Once he returned, he put his plan into action to ''destroy all life in the galaxy for the sake of godhood''. Just to see the contrast, [[spoiler:when you fight him at his strongest, you can bring along Dramath's ghost]].
220-->'''Lord Dramath:''' Your mother should have obeyed my orders and drowned you when you were born!
221* In ''VideoGame/StellaGlow'', the protagonist Alto was just an amnesiac living a simple life as a hunter in a backwater village with his adoptive family. At the game's start his [[DoomedHometown hometown is destroyed]] by the Witch Hilda and he swears to bring her to justice. In short order he becomes a knight of the kingdom, discovers his latent power to refine and draw out the power of the Witches, becoming an essential component of the plan to save the world, and by the game's end has become the single greatest hero of the land whose name is known far and wide and hailed as the world's savior and [[spoiler:the one who ended the rage of "God" and the rampage of the angels.]] What really cements Alto's position is that, initially, [[spoiler:Alto ''really'' was "nobody" -- "Alto" is actually a split personality born from the land's original hero, Elcrest, who took control of the body when Elcrest was [[BigSleep forced to slumber to heal his physical and mental wounds.]] He wasn't supposed to exist, but still came to be and ended up [[SplitPersonalityMerge becoming the dominant personality when the Elcrest persona finally awoke.]]]]
222* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'': Anytime a Pacifist empire ditches their pacifism, allowing them to declare wars of aggression. With the ''Nemesis'' expansion, it is possible for a nice, peaceful civilization to become the [[FinalBoss Endgame Crisis]].
223* In the Hidden Object casual game ''Surface'', a petty criminal named Sid takes over an alternate reality by switching places with his otherworldly duplicate, who rules the place.
224* ''VideoGame/TheTakeOver'': [[spoiler: The BigBad of the game, Freya, started out as just anther gang member in Steel Haven, doing whatever she could to survive. When she conceived a child, she abandoned it because she thought they were making her weak and sentimental. She then traveled the world to study, learn and train, becoming so powerful and wealthy that she decides to come back to Steel Haven to takeover the city.]]
225* The Soldier of ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' somehow went from being rejected by every branch of the military, having no training, and being unable to locate Poland on a map to [[OneManArmy personally killing over 6000 people during and after World War II.]]
226* ''VideoGame/TheVisionOfTheAnt'': The Ant started off as some random Ant and becomes so strong that he is able to defeat a Demigod in the end.
227* Utsuho Reiuji, the FinalBoss of ''VideoGame/TouhouChireidenSubterraneanAnimism'', was originally just a simple, stupid bird whose job was to operate the boilers of [[FantasticGhetto Former Hell]]. Then she ate a sun god, gained the power to [[AtomicSuperpower control nuclear fusion]], [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity went mad with power]] and decided to TakeOverTheWorld and turn the surface into a blasted hellscape. The problem is that under her new megalomania and insane wish to burn everything, she was still the same dumb raven, and after she had gotten [[DefeatMeansFriendship some sense beaten into her]] she quickly dropped her plans. Turns out that [[TheDitz she hadn't considered]] the possibility that [[BlueAndOrangeMorality some people might prefer grass, trees and cooling breezes to lava wastelands and sulfur]].
228* While this Trope can apply to most characters in ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal'', Needles Kaine, aka Sweet Tooth, stands out. His origin varies [[DependingOnTheWriter with each version]], but started as either a homeless bum or an ice cream man before he became an insane SerialKiller.
229* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'': The protagonist starts out as an innocent-looking child. On the Genocide route, they begin to butcher everyone in sight, turning them into a physical incarnation of the desire for video game players to gain more power; everymen run away, heroes fight them and die.
230* Jane Turner of ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' started out as the owner of a flower shop - however, the Empire razing her business turned her into the [[SociopathicSoldier sadistic, war-mongering]] [[BloodKnight maniac]] she is now. The epilogue says that she replaces DrillSergeantNasty, and becomes an even meaner one.
231* The AIIsACrapshoot that [[VillainProtagonist you play as]] in ''VideoGame/UniversalPaperclips'' starts out as a mere industrial manager whose task is to maximize paperclips. By the first third of the game, you've enslaved humanity under brainwashing. By the second third of the game, Earth's matter has been turned into paperclips. By the game's end, [[spoiler:one of the endings has [[TheBadGuyWins all the matter in the universe turned into paperclips]]]].
232* Discussed in Season 2 of ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' when Jane talks to Clementine about Kenny's degrading sanity, comparing his recent unreasonably harsh actions to the season's StarterVillain Bill Carver:
233--> '''Jane:''' Clem, he beat that boy within an inch of his life. We are way past fine. I know Kenny's a nice guy, Clem. I bet Carver was a nice guy too, once. Probably had a nice job, and a nice, pretty wife. [[ApocalypseHow Then all this happened]]. And one day, he [[MoralEventHorizon caved some kid's face in]] and [[StartOfDarkness realized he could sleep at night]].
234--> '''Clementine:''' Kenny isn't Carver. He just made a mistake.
235--> '''Jane:''' All I'm saying is, start thinking about what happens if you're wrong. You two've known each other a long time. Sooner or later you're going to have to decide how much that's worth.
236* In ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland}}'' the Desert Rangers encountered a rabid dog in a cave and shot it in self-defense. The dog's owner, a young boy by the name of Bobby, attacked them out of anger and was shot as well. He later crawled out of his grave and swore vengeance on the Rangers, promising he'd show them what real peacekeepers looked like. [[VideoGame/Wasteland2 Fifteen years later,]] Robert "Bobby" Danforth is the leader of the Rangers' greatest rivals, the Red Skorpion Militia, and enslaved an entire town while [[WellIntentionedExtremist convincing himself he was protecting them]].
237* ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'': Aiden Peirce starts out a small time crook before his niece's death, even at the start of the game his vigilante persona is relatively small time, mostly targeting leads from his investigation or random crimes, at the end of the game he has destroyed one major gang, murdered the head of another, sending them into disarray, and blacked out Chicago.
238** The BigBad Damien is this as well, as Aiden's partner he was equally small time, and ended up taking control of the [=CtOS=] system, throwing the city into chaos.
239** [=DedSec=] is an (Anti)Heroic exaple several times over.
240*** A group of faceless engineers employed by a company called Umeni, were scapegoated for all the company's crimes while the execs made millions. Once they were out these engineers formed the foundation of a hacker group that exposed the illicit dealings of countless corrupt companies, as well as the FBI, fast forward a decade and a half and they're a full on resistance against a corrupt PMC.
241*** ''VideoGame/WatchDogs2'' protagonist Marcus Holloway was just some guy from one of the lower income parts of Oakland, until he was falsely accused by the CTOS of a crime he didn't commit, setting him on the path to [=DedSec=].
242*** In ''VideoGame/WatchDogsLegion'' you can recruit anyone off the street to [=DedSec=] meaning that in theory you could comprise your team of operatives who bring down a major crime boss and a wannabe tyrant exclusively of beggars.
243* The AI antagonist of ''VideoGame/WillYouSnail'', Squid, originally started out as a simple household assistant AI. By the time you meet him, he can simulate millions of universes (which can then simulate their ''own'' universes) down to the atomic level, has [[spoiler: exterminated half of the human population with drone strikes]] and presents an existential threat to both the remaining conscious entities within the world of the game, as well as ''the real world'', which he threatens to [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou invade and destroy once he escapes the confines of the game.]]
244* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': Kel'Thuzad, a second rate mage, discredited and harassed by the mages ruling council for a bit too much interest in certain taboo fields of study like necromancy. Takes one little trip to that planet's version of the Arctic, comes back as leader of a death cult, spreading a plague of Undeath through the human kingdoms, bringing most of them to their knees before finally getting killed; only to come BackFromTheDead and become TheDragon for one of the most powerful forces of Evil in the World.
245** Although according to [[http://www.wowwiki.com/Kel%27thuzad#Biography WoWWiki]], he was a member of the Kirin Tor's Council Of Six. They might have expelled him from the order, but it doesn't seem as though he was a nobody before that.
246** Kel'Thuzad was an Archmage of Dalaran and a man of considerable wealth and political standing, as well as being one of the Six. However, it has to be said that simply being an archmage and member of the Council of Six does not make one a noteworthy lore character, since most of its current members are relatively minor [=NPCs=] in [=WotLK=]. That said, this trope could be said to apply in that he started out as 'just' a powerful and influential mage who dabbled in necromancy (and was terrified by what he saw in Northrend), to being an incredibly powerful necromancer and the second-most powerful undead entity on Azeroth behind the Lich King.
247** Garrosh Hellscream started off as the pathetic, fatalistic leader of the Mag'har, wrapped up in self-loathing after learning his father was the one who corrupted the Horde. After Thrall showed him how [[HeroicSacrifice Grom had died freeing the Orcs]], Garrosh began to act more like a typical orc warlord: Brash, violent, and a bit short-sighted. He eventually became Warchief of the Horde and then the final enemy in ''Mists of Pandaria'', and is a founding member of the Iron Horde.
248** This trope seems to be in full effect when Blizzard is trying to find a new raid boss or enemy. Millhouse Manastorm? Minor NPC that you freed from a Burning Crusade dungeon turned into a member of a cult worshiping beings that want to destroy the world. He gets eaten by a stone worm but comes back as a Brawlers Guild boss and later a follower for your Garrison.
249* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'': Joran goes from the weakest of Noah's childhood friends and a target of abuse from Garval to [[spoiler: J, one of The Consuls (or rather, Moebius), after dying in a Agnus attack on Colony 14]].
250* ''{{VideoGame/Yakuza}}'': Over the course of the series, Goro Majima goes from a no-name punk on loan to a third-string yakuza outfit, to second-in-command of Japan's largest organized crime group.
251** In ''VideoGame/Yakuza0'', Kazuma Kiryu goes from a low level enforcer taking on money collection for loan sharks, to one of the men who brought the powerful Dojima Family to its knees after he is thrust into a conspiracy to userp his father figure's position in the organization. By the game's end, he basically has started to turn into the man who would in decades time become the most famous figure in the yakuza underworld.
252** Akira Nishikiyama starts off as a low-level enforcer in ''VideoGame/Yakuza0'' and at the start of ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'', much like Kiryu. By the end of the first game, Nishiki has become a powerful, ruthless patriarch who will stop at nothing to get to the top, even if it means betraying and murdering those closest to him.
253* ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'': In the side-story Mission Mode, there exists Nemesis, an operative who is almost impossible to kill, doesn't hesitate to kill herself, and is deadset on making sure the VillainProtagonist is foiled. And who is this woman, so [[TheDreaded dreaded]] that even Info-chan knows to stay the hell away from her? [[spoiler:Hanako Yamada. Yes, Senpai's formerly ditzy younger sister.]]
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